Afghan Square #22

Afghan Square #22

Can I post from here? Blogger's being stoopid.

Anyway, I've decided that today will be fun, and medical stuff will be non-existant. (Tongue is still the same, and thus ignorable.)

Last night I edged and embellished the above square, and edged the following square:


Thanks for all the birthday wishes! (Yep, I'm 30.)

Birthday

Happy Birthday to me,
I live in a tree.
I look like a monkey,
And I act like I'm three.

(What's a decimal place among friends?)

How old am I?

Binary: 11110
Octal: 36
Hex: 1E

Doc Stuff

Sorry to leave you hanging... after I got back from the doc I had lunch with K, and then had a longish nap. (For some reason, I was tired.)

So, the doc told me to stop taking sudafed, and suggested trying Procardia instead. He also said we could try 'roids, but Procardia is usually handled well, and was a better way to start. He seems to think it'll go away eventually anyway, but the Procardia could make it go away faster.

While I was in, I did a little grilling. I asked about the aspirin. He said he told me to stop it mainly because I had been on it for a while, and he wanted to remove that from the possibilities. (Yay, aspirin isn't necessarily evil!)

The doc doesn't know what caused the tongue swelling (angeoedima), but the reason it was *able* to happen is because I have a C1 esterase deficiency, which is a hereditary condition. It also manifests in swollen hands (hence the check yesterday), cheeks, eyelids, and I can't remember if there was anything else.

But gee... sometimes when I walk, I get hot swollen hands (check) and sometimes also hives on my legs. When I eat things I'm allergic to sometimes my tongue (check) or cheeks (check) swell... I mostly notice when I accidentally bite them instead of my food. And then there's the fact that my eyelids have been swollen (check) for about a year now. Nothing serious, but they've been puffy, and I like it better when they aren't. Yeah, I mentioned all this to the doc after he brought it up. (I think I forgot to mention the cheeks, though. I *did* mention the hands and eyelids.) He suggested taking antihistamines before exercise (for the hands), but didn't seem all that interested in my puffy eyelids.

After leaving the doc, I went to the student health pharmacy, only to discover Procardia isn't available there. They recommended Suttons Drugs. I just called, and they don't have Procardia 10 (what my doc prescribed), but Procardia 30 runs about $70. :P

So, K and I did a little googling, and this C1 esterase deficiency sounds like some scary stuff. As soon as I'm back in Winnipeg I'm going to go in to talk to my allergist. Maybe I don't have it... the doc here is only a family doc, and hasn't done any tests. (Note to self: google to see if there are tests.)

So, anyway, that's where things stand. Tongue is still swollen, but not getting any worse. I'm going to give it time. And google.

Update

I have an appt for 10:30.

Thinking

I had lots of time to think last night. Why? Because I hardly slept at all. Why? Well, that's what I thought about. Here's the possibilities:
1. joint pain
2. exercise bike
3. sudafed

I don't think it was the joint pain... yes, my knee hurt, but it didn't hurt all that much.

I don't think it was riding my exercise bike either. Although exercise supposedly produces endorphins, I have *never* had problems sleeping after exercising before. Plus, the "bicycle butt" only really makes itself known when I prod it.

The non-drowsy sudafed is my prime suspect. The active ingredient is pseudoephedrine hydrochloride. Isn't ephedrine one of those stimulants they put in those nasty diet powders? Yes, there's a "pseudo" in front of the ephedrine, but it's still probably related. And the whole night I felt like my body was, um, "twitchy" is the best word I can come up with, or maybe "trembly." Yeah, trembly. Like I'm vibrating, sort of.

Hmmm... checking the back, it says: "Stop use and ask a doctor if you get nervous, dizzy, or sleepless..."

Gah.

Looks like I'll be contacting my doc.

My tongue is still swollen too. :P

Tonight in Point Form

- had a nap
- ate dinner
- rode exercise bike for 56 minutes!!!
- had a shower
- read blogs

Verdict (TMI)

Well, I'm back from the doc.

For the tongue: stop taking aspirin immediately (which I had been taking for joint pain), take full doses of my antihistamine and decongestant, and are my hands swollen? Um, no. Well, I got a long name for it which basically translates to "allergy," and I have stuff to try, but we don't know the cause, or if what I'm doing will solve the problem. I think I'll google "aspirin swollen tongue hands" to see what my doc thinks it might be.

I got new epipens, since my "in date" one expired in December... with a swollen tongue, I want to be on the safe side. I got the two-pack with the fun "toy" epipen that's for practice. After I got back, I showed K and M how it works, and then later I showed J... J said he wasn't sure how I was feeling... good, or sarcastic. I told him that the prozac was working, but that I was peeved with my current set of health problems. So both, I guess.

For the faint kidney-stone-like pain I got to pee in a bottle. No sign of kidney stones (but, of course, it's not hurting today, so that may not say anything), but I apparently do have a bit of a bladder infection. I thought I might, given that my urine has been cloudy lately... but I wasn't concerned about that, since kidney stones cause bladder infections, and since I don't have a solution to my kidney stones, taking something for the bladder infection is pointless. (It's not causing me any other problems that I've noticed.) He's going to culture my urine to see what bacteria it is, but basically he said to come in on a day when it's actually hurting. He might be able to give me a better answer then.

The joint pain *isn't* the disfiguring type of arthritis (I knew that) that shows up on bloodwork (I didn't know that only one shows up on bloodwork). He checked my past blood tests... they were pretty comprehensive, since we were trying to make sure that my other problems were actually depression, and I've had this pain for years. However, when I go in next week (follow-up on everything from this visit), I'm to get weight-bearing x-rays of my knees and hips to see if anything interesting shows up there.

And while I was in anyway, I got more refills on my Prozac. Wheeee. (I have enough for this month, but I figured I'd save an appointment.)

Well, that's where I am. Still pretty much clueless as normal, but with some stuff to try. I sure hope the tongue swelling goes down to make up for the fact I can't take painkillers for my joint pain.

You know, there are people who basically never need to go to the doctor. I find that amazing. I wish I could be like that.

Sorry about all the run-on sentences... but I don't feel like fixing that when I should really be getting back to work. :) (But I think I'll start with a quick google on the tongue first.)

Socks in Progress

Socks in Progress

I'm now past the heels. I love how these are turning out!

I worked on the heels last night at SNB, since, with all those colours, it was a bit tricky for bus crochet. (When I was working on a heel, I had three colours attached to one sock, and one of those was simultaneously attached to the other sock. A situation that just asks for tangles... :) )

Our SNB group is planning a field trip to Shuttles, Needles and Hooks this Saturday! :) (I will have to try to not buy anything.)

Also at SNB, S gave me a knitting book! It was from her destashing project, and she chose me as the recipient after I happened to mention my birthday is Friday. :) The book is Hip Knits.

I also wound another skein of yarn last night... four more to go.

I think I'll go down and say hi to K before I have to head over to my dr appt. Later!

Farewell

Farewell

This little guy is headed off to Slovenia. (There's a few other things in the package, but they're a surprise, so I'm not showing them yet.)

Doc

Well, I made an appointment with my doctor. My tongue is still swollen, and yesterday I had a bit of trouble swallowing while standing at the bus stop. I was hoping for an appointment today, but I should have called earlier, or gotten up earlier, or not asked to have as many things checked out.

I figured as long as I'm going in, I might as well deal with the other stuff that's been bothering me... I want to find out if my joint pain is indeed arthritis (it *hurt* again last night), it's about time for my depression check-up, and I want to ask my doc about the occasional abdominal pain I get. The abdominal pain reminds me of when I had my kidney stones, but is only a faint pain. I figured that just meant I had wee little stones rattling around in there. Then there was an article about ovarian cancer in the paper, where the symptoms were rather unremarkable, but sounded a bit like mine. I *don't* think I have ovarian cancer, but I'd like to check with the doc that what I *do* have is likely little kidney stones. I can live with little kidney stones... especially since they're only on the one side, so if they're screwing up my kidney, I at least have a spare.

Sometimes a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. ;)

The appointment is for tomorrow at 1... so hopefully everything will get straightened out then. I'd at least like my tongue swelling to go down.